Photo by Charles Mills
Divers Build Houses, Pass Go, Land in Jail
Exactly 144 hours and 500 tanks of air later, divers from the Twin Cities Diving Association emerged at noon Tuesday from the bottom of the huge pool in the TC Aquatics Center. During their “Monopolathon,” the group had raised over $700 for the March of Dimes and shattered three world records.
The divers, who began their fundraising event the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, spent six days underwater. During that time, an estimated 1,500 people passed through to watch the divers and cheer them on.
“I’m very, very pleased with the results and success of the event,” Hub Dungan, aquatics director here, said. “We got good response from everyone and I am particularly grateful for all the fine publicity we received and to TC for letting us use these facilities.”
Dungan said that over 45 divers had participated in the event as well as former students who now attend college out of town. “The mere fact that we have sustained this game for so long speaks very well for the scuba training program offered at TC,” said Dan Moats, TCDA president.
Dungan said all the goals the TCDA had hoped to accomplish were met. He said $703.29 was raised and donated to the March of Dimes; plenty of publicity was given both the club and the TC pool; and divers had smashed all three previous records.
The results, which were logged hourly by non-participating witnesses, have been sent to Parker Brothers, Inc., makers of the specially-designed underwater version of the popular real estate game. Once these records are verified, the TCDA will be included in the next edition of “The Guinness World Book of Records.”
The game, after it had been dried, also was returned to Parker Bros., who will in February send it to a diving club in Tacoma, Wash., so they can try and best the records set by the TCDA.
“We have been in contact with the Tacoma bunch,” Dungan said. “And they have told us they will try and break our team and individual records, but they said they are not even going to attempt to better our continuous play record.”
The new continuous play record, 144 hours, is exactly double the old record of 72 hours set by a team in Oklahoma.